ANNIVERSARY ARTICLES
SIR,—If it is an offence against professional comradeship to print articles on an anniversary too soon, the British Weekly has sinned over the Isaac Watts bicentenary more grievously than Janus suggested. As with the Abide With Me centenary. a year ago, we felt that here was an anniversary of special significance to our particular body of readers, and we began our celebrations in the Easter number, spreading several articles on various aspects over the year. We had two Watts articles to get into the paper this month, and I decided to give Sir Norman Birkett's early. But is the comparison with important books a good one ? I would not willingly violate a legitimate release-date for news or a review, but we are free to write of the past at any time. I know the irritation that comes when a contemporary steals ahead on a subject with which one has planned to deal. "There is so much to give in our little space and this would hold. But will So-and-So get there first?" is just one of the headaches of the editorial life. And Du/ Spectator is so good, its enter- prise so marked, it need not feel unfairly "scooped" if another paper's circumstances occasionally dictate the anticipating of an anniversary. George Sampson's article on Isaac Watts, for instance, was well worth waitihg for.—Yours sincerely, REGINALD A. SMITH. British Weekly, ii Buckingham Street, W.C.2.
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